The Jim and Shirley Show

Barnie Day was a Democratic delegate from Patrick County from his election in 1997 through the 2001 session. A former county administrator and business owner, he is now a banker.

Did you catch the Gilmore story in the Washington Post Wednesday? Honest to God, I thought I was seeing things. Here's Michael Shear's lead:

"James S. Gilmore III, the former Virginia governor whom Democrats derided as "Governor Gridlock" for presiding over a financially failing transportation department, is now co-chairman of a consulting group that offers advice nationwide about how to finance new roads."

Saaaaywhuuut?

Hold on. It gets better.

Shirley -- that's right -- Ybarra, the one and the same, who was G'mo's secretary of transportation, has been named the coalition's executive director!

This duo is going to give advice nationwide about how to finance new roads?

That's what it sounds like. The Washington-based Coalition for Innovative Transportation Solutions is being funded by big road building companies and oil companies that make and sell asphalt

If they care about the truth, the first thing they'll do is re-name themselves. If Gilmore's is going to lead it, Coalition for Imaginary Transportation Solutions would be more like it.

Says the Post about Gilmore's record on road building: "During his term, the Virginia Department of Transportation was beset by cost overruns, political manipulation and management failures. By the beginning of 1999, computer scenarios routinely predicted months with deficits running into the hundreds of millions of dollars."

Says the man, himself: "That's quite a record in transportation."

You got that right, bub. Serious folks will be asking you for advice on road building when they come to believe that Magellan asked for the cook's views on navigation.

Lest anyone think this is a partisan commentary about a scenario that would be laughable, except for the fact that it happens to be true, here's the Post's coverage of some Republican reaction:

David Guernsey, a Fairfax Republican and the chairman of REGION, a business group, said he was "stunned" by Gilmore's decision to offer advice on road building to a national audience.

"I would have thought that the transportation agenda and the lack of accomplishment with it would be the last thing that the Gilmore administration would want to put forward," Guernsey said.

The last thing? Let me think. That covers a lot of ground. The last thing you'd want to put forward for national scrutiny? In Jim's case, there are so many candidates. So many policies worthy of 'last thing'.

But…hummm…all in all….I'd have to agree. Transportation would be the last thing.

Quite naturally, Gilmore blamed the near universal incredulity the news met with on political backbiting.

Ummhmm.

The astonishment has nothing to do with the worst record on transportation in the history of the Commonwealth. It has nothing do to with all the catastrophic failures in management. It has nothing to do with leaving the once-proud transportation department in a shambles. It has nothing to do with setting Virginia road building back for a generation.

The miracle is that with the back-to-back administrations of George Allen-who gutted the department of its most knowledgeable personnel-and Jim Gilmore-who managed what was left of it disgracefully-there is anything left of at all of a department once touted among the best in the nation.

What's the situation now? Read the headlines. Construction projects slashed. Crushing debt service that reaches to the far horizon. Six year plans that may not be realized in sixty. Desperate needs that continue to pile up by the billions.

But rest easy, my friends. Help is on the way. The Jim and Shirley Show is going to hit the road (what's left of it).

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